


Sick Day

by Lavavulture



Series: One, Two, Three [4]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-04 00:11:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5312333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavavulture/pseuds/Lavavulture
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cole doesn't disapprove of much but he definitely doesn't approve of being sick and he really just wants to spent time with his two favorite people.  Iron Bull helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sick Day

**Author's Note:**

> Ridiculous. This OT3 is eating my brain during the busiest time of the year for me. I'm thrilled to pieces.

At first Cole didn’t know what had pulled him out of sleep. He still felt a bit hazy and liquid like the medicine that Stitches had been giving him for days. He stared for a bleary moment at Dorian’s broad-backed armchair, focusing on the fine golden thread. It looked like the threads in Dorian’s soft sleeping robes, which he’d been wearing to bed in Dorian’s absence because it felt like him and it made Cole feel better. Sudden realization hit him and he struggled out from underneath Iron Bull’s heavy arm.

“What’s that?” Iron Bull muttered sleepily. He reached out for him as Cole slipped out of bed but he was too quick despite the sickness still pinning his feet to the floor. 

Cole went up to the window and peered out into the dark night hiding the mountains from sight. Looking didn’t make seeing easier but he looked just the same, pressing against the stone cold wall of Dorian’s bedroom in his growing excitement. He shivered.

“Get back here.” Iron Bull said firmly. “It’s freezing. You’re gonna end up back in that medical tent.”

And Cole frowned into the darkness because he hadn’t liked being in that tent, head breaking, skin crawling, stomach churning. His own misery had been so strong during that first week that he hadn’t even cared about the misery surrounding him at first, which had been the most upsetting part of all. 

Iron Bull had been there almost the entire time. He’d been a strong, constant figure in the background as Stitches had worked with Skyhold’s healers to make Cole better. He hadn’t been dying after all, despite how terrible he’d felt, but he had been very sick and his new body hadn’t known what to do with the sickness. It had embraced it like it was his responsibility to care for it even though having it didn’t make anybody else better. He wished that it had. It would have made the hurting easier to endure.

“Dorian is back,” Cole said instead of voicing his disobedience because he wanted to look out more.

“Yeah?” Iron Bull got out of bed then. He sounded so pleased that it made Cole flush warm, even before Iron Bull caged him in against the wall with his big body. He nuzzled at Cole’s hair for a moment before looking out too.

“He’s still very far away,” Cole told him, pressing into his warmth. “He wants to sleep but Cadash wants to talk into the night so that she doesn’t have to dream. Dwarves shouldn’t dream.”

“Hmmm.” Iron Bull didn’t say that he was disappointed but Cole could feel it tickling around on the edges of him missing Dorian. Cole turned around in his arms and pushed his face against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry that he’s not here with you now,” Cole murmured against the scar Iron Bull had gotten when he’d saved Dalish from an angry group of Templars.

“I’m glad he’s on his way back,” Iron Bull responded. He tightened his arms around Cole for a moment before loosening them and pulling back. “It’s time for you to take your medicine.”

“No, thank you,” Cole said, as politely as he could, hopeful. It tasted foul and made his already weighty limbs feel even more sluggish.

“No?” Iron Bull caged him in against the wall again.

“I don’t want to take it. I feel better now.” Cole looked up at Iron Bull. Sometimes when he looked at him Iron Bull felt something loosen in him and he would be softer and more willing to agree with him. 

This time Iron Bull’s face didn’t soften however. It stayed stony and Cole felt his own mouth firming against it. Then something switched in Iron Bull’s mind so quickly that Cole couldn’t catch it and his lips curled into a suggestive smirk.

“You have to get all the way better for when Dorian comes home. I still haven’t seen what he taught you when I was gone. You’ll have to be strong for that.” Iron Bull slid his hands down and under the soft robe until he was cupping Cole’s hips, pulling him closer. Iron Bull pulled him up into his hands and Cole loosely fit his legs around his massive hips. The wall was still cold against Cole’s back as Iron Bull pressed him against it but he barely felt it as Iron Bull leaned down to kiss him.

Cole closed his eyes as Iron Bull moved down the front of his neck. One of Iron Bull’s big hands pulled open the ties of the robe and it fell open with a soft silken slide. Then that hand traveled down his body and found where Cole was still slick and grasping from the gentle sex they’d had a few hours ago. The sex had been so different in the past few days from what it’d been the night Cole had first gotten sick. It was careful and slow and Cole had liked the strength and ferocity Iron Bull had shown before but this was nice too. This was tender and it made Iron Bull feel powerful in a different way.

“Mmmm, that’s good, Kid,” Iron Bull murmured, working his fingers into Cole in a steady rhythm. Cole stretched up and moaned, low and weak. 

Cole pressed the back of his head against the windowpane and felt out towards Dorian, who was annoyed and tired. He wished not for the first time that he could let people know what he was feeling like he could read them. Sometimes it wouldn’t be good—like when he felt itchy and irritable in his human skin—but right now Dorian would be pleased to feel the warm coiling of pleasure moving up through his body.

Too soon for Cole’s liking Iron Bull pulled his fingers out of him. He frowned at him but Iron Bull just leaned forward and kissed him again, tongue gently forcing its way into his mouth. Then Cole was delighted to feel the hard press of Iron Bull’s thick erection pushing into him. It came in smooth and hot and Cole pulled away from Iron Bull’s mouth far enough to cry out.

“There you go,” Iron Bull said, pulling his head back to watch again. Cole was too busy feeling to look at him but he could feel Iron Bull’s satisfaction, coming even more from his easy control than from the tight grip of his body. He pushed into him, once, and then pulled out almost all the way. Twice, still slow and firm. Three more times. Cole moaned and clenched around the growing pressure in his body. Twice more. Then Iron Bull paused.

The pause went on for way too long. Cole opened his eyes and turned his head from where he’d been pressing his cheek against the stone. Iron Bull waited until his eyes were locked with his before reaching behind him towards the dresser. He pulled back the potion vial that Stiches had insisted he take twice a day until it was gone.

Iron Bull unstopped the vial and held it to Cole’s lips. Cole tried to move against the hard pressure in him but Iron Bull held him still.

“One good swallow and you’re done for today.” Iron Bull ran his thumb over Cole’s suddenly tightened mouth. 

Cole shook his head. He didn’t want to take the medicine but this wasn’t about that. Iron Bull liked it when he disobeyed. And Cole liked it when Iron Bull made him obey. It was the closest he was ever going to come to being bound up safely in a strong mage’s power and it made him ache in a way he didn’t think he would have if Solas’s magic had worked on him.

“No?” Iron Bull thrust into him again, this time quick and hard. It forced a startled cry out of Cole but he held his lips firmly pressed when Iron Bull pushed the vial against him. “Come on, Kid. I’m trying to do this nice because you’re still sick. You know I can do it not as nice. Is that what you want?”

And that made Cole tighten involuntarily around Iron Bull because he did want that, he wanted the hard promise of punishment gleaming in his eye. He saw the exact moment when realization hit Iron Bull.

“Oh, is that right?” Iron Bull began moving again, back to slow and gentle. “Bad little demons don’t want nice.”

Cole wanted to tell him that he wasn’t a demon and although he was bad he tried not to be but when Iron Bull said it like that, while he was driving hard pleasure into him, he suddenly found he liked the idea. It was like when Iron Bull had encouraged him to fight him with all the anger he thought he had to push away for fear of hurting someone. Sometimes he liked his bad feelings. Sometimes they felt good.

“You’re going to take your medicine now or I’m not going to let Dorian play with you when he gets back,” Iron Bull promised. “He’ll be disappointed but he’ll understand that bad little demons need to be taught a lesson in obedience.” 

That was truly upsetting. He missed Dorian so much, missed his clever voice and his smooth skin and his teasing hands. He wanted him and Iron Bull shouldn’t keep him from him when it was what they all wanted. Cole twisted in Iron Bull’s grip, around his cock, and then gave up his struggles, panting, when it didn’t even interrupt his slow rhythm. He was still too weak. Iron Bull was right.

“I’ll take it, The Iron Bull,” Cole said. “I want to be better.”

“Good boy.” Iron Bull nodded. He held the vial up to his lips and Cole took a deep swallow. The medicine tasted foul and stuck to his tongue on the way past. He wondered if it stuck to his insides with the same tenacity.

“Blegh.” Cole made a face and pressed his mouth to Iron Bull’s shoulder, twisting his body up easily. Iron Bull’s skin was harder and rougher than Dorian’s and always tasted faintly of salt. Cole licked his skin to try to get rid of the taste of the medicine. 

Iron Bull laughed and reached behind him again. He tilted Cole back against the wall in an easy motion and held a cup of water to his mouth. Cole didn’t care for water that much. It tasted like nothing and it punished people for not having it in them but he obediently drank it.

“There we go. Just a few more days.” _And I’ll let Dorian bully him into taking the rest of it._ The thought was bright and delicious in Iron Bull’s head for a moment and then gone when he began moving deeper into Cole. 

Cole curled his hands around Iron Bull’s neck and enjoyed. The medicine was already weighing his limbs down more, making the edges of his sight turn dark. He couldn’t think as clearly as he had before and he couldn’t feel Dorian even though he was only half a day away. He didn’t like it but he did like Iron Bull’s warm body pressed against him, his strong hands supportive around his hips. He didn’t have to depend on himself to feel safe and that felt best of all. 

 

“I’m going to be finding pyrophite in my pockets for days. Cadash insisted on taking every little piece she could find in the Emerald Graves. Although she did say she would make me a new staff so I suppose I might be a little grateful.” 

Dorian’s voice pulled Cole out of his foggy sleep. He opened his eyes to see Dorian moving around the bedroom, pulling off pieces of his elaborate armor. Iron Bull was watching him from the big armchair with a hooded look.

“Honestly I’m never going out with Cassandra and Varric again. I don’t care what they say, people don’t bicker like that unless they secretly want to do something else.”

“You’re the expert on that, aren’t you, _kadan_?” Iron Bull patted his big lap. “Stop fussing around and say hello to me.”

“I have to find Cadash a book I was telling her about last night. She’s very insistent that it has to be right away. Impatient woman.” Dorian pushed at the edges of his mustache like he couldn’t imagine ever being impatient. He glanced over at the bed and noticed Cole staring glassy-eyed up at him. “Ah, look who’s awake.”

Cole sat up with some difficulty as Dorian came quickly to the side of the bed. Dorian slid his hand up against Cole’s cheek. “Hello, Dorian. I’m happy that you’re back and that Cadash is going to make you a new staff with a skull on top.”

Dorian chuckled but his light eyes were intent on Cole’s face. “Hello, Cole. I’m happy to be back. Bull tells me you haven’t been feeling well?”

Cole nodded, pressing against Dorian’s hand. “I was sick because I forgot how to not be sick and human but I feel better now and I don’t have to take more medicine.”

“Yes, you do,” Iron Bull said in a sudden stern rumble. “Right until it’s gone.”

“Oh, yes, of course you do,” Dorian murmured. His hand curled around Cole’s chin and he leaned over to kiss him, long and deep. He pulled back and regarded him carefully. “I’m exhausted, Cole. Will you help me find where I put that book and then we can take a nice nap on that beautiful divan Vivienne bought for Cadash? It should get some use.”

“Hey,” Iron Bull said, disgruntled. “What about me?”

“You can’t possibly fit on it.” Dorian smirked but went over to Iron Bull and kissed him. It grew heated as Dorian wrapped his hands around Iron Bull’s broad back but Dorian pulled away after a moment. “Ah, _amatus_ , let me get some blasted sleep already and then I can get to you. I’d love to get to you.”

“I love you too,” Iron Bull said and grinned broadly when Dorian scowled at him. 

Dorian turned around and crooked his finger at Cole, who eagerly stumbled out of bed. Dorian looked him over. “Don’t you look sweet in my robe. Let me find you something less delightful to wear for an audience with the Herald. She'll accuse me of corrupting you.”

“All right,” Cole said agreeably and pushed the robe off.

Dorian laughed. “Such a tease.”

Cole considered that for a moment. Iron Bull called Dorian a tease five times a day and he thought that he understood what that meant since Dorian did promise things with his mouth and hands that he was slow to actually deliver. But Cole wasn’t promising anything so maybe he didn’t know what that meant.

“What is a tease?” Cole asked.

“Charming spirits who tempt tired mages when they need to sleep. Now put some clothes on and come with me.” Dorian held out his hand. 

Cole didn’t hesitate a moment after getting dressed before taking Dorian’s hand in his and holding it tight. He was so happy that Dorian was back. It made him feel better in a way that no amount of magic or foul medicine possibly could. 

Having Dorian and Iron Bull both together with him in the same place made him feel like he could do anything. He wondered why.

“Come along, Cole,” Dorian said and tugged on his hand. His mind was filled with delicious, warm images of them curled up together in the Inquisitor’s room, sated and satisfied as Cadash made weapons and cared for them.

“Yes, Dorian,” Cole said and followed him.


End file.
